On Holocaust Memorial Day, We Must Stand Against Hate
Speech to the Scottish Parliament during the Holocaust Memorial Day debate, 26/01/2017 (You can view the video on Facebook);
Tomorrow, on Holocaust Memorial Day we mark the worst atrocity in human history, a crime beyond comprehension which involved the industrial, political and military capacity of a world superpower being directed towards the annihilation of the Jewish people, as well as it’s other perceived enemies and those who did not fit the horrifying plans for a genetically superior Aryan master race. It is estimated that over one million people were killed in Auschwitz alone, before it was liberated 72 years ago tomorrow.
Overall, six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, alongside a further five million people, including homosexuals, people with disabilities, Poles and other Slavs, Romanis, communists, Soviet citizens and prisoners of war, trade unionists and other political opponents of the Nazi regime. Despite the vows to never allow such crimes against humanity to occur again, since the Holocaust, other genocides have occurred, including in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. On Holocaust Memorial Day we remember not just the victims of the Third Reich but all victims of genocide.
We have to grapple with the question of how these events could even happen. Reading a testimony of the Soviet commanding officer who helped to liberate Auschwitz, he said, as he stood outside one of the burning ovens:
‘How can this be in the midst of the 20th Century! I can’t comprehend this’.
Here we are in the in the 21st Century. Can we comprehend this now? Can we prevent genocide from happening again? Can we prevent fascism again? These are questions which have taken on a renewed importance in recent years.
The actual mass murders of the Holocaust took place between 1941 and 1945. But before that could happen, there was a longer process of dehumanisation, of propaganda targeted against Jews in particular, in order to set the political context that would permit mass murder. This propaganda was not rational, it was not true, it was premised instead on lies.
Lies about the Jews being responsible for losing the first world war. Lies about Jews plotting world domination. The fact that these were lies did not halt the advance of fascism. The fascists created their own alternative reality and made their society believe it.
Whilst we must be careful – and it is rarely appropriate to do so – there are comparisons to be drawn with political events happening today in the world around us. Across Europe and America we once again see lies and propaganda dominating news coverage, fuelling far-right parties and politicians. Views that were once peripheral, unaccepted to mainstream society and politics have come back. Here in the UK, we have columnists who write in a national newspaper – literally the largest national newspaper by circulation – describing refugees as cockroaches who should be met with gunboats. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has described this as pro-genocide propaganda.
In the United States, the recent election has emboldened neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Too often the media has served to legitimise the far-right by giving them coverage. One of the final opposition speeches given in the Reichstag included a section with uncomfortable relevance today:
“It would be easier to stand up to such exaggerations if the kind of reporting that separates truth from falsehood were possible at home. It would be even better if we could attest in good conscience that full protection in justice has been restored for all. That, gentlemen, is up to you”
One US media outlet ran the headline ‘Meet the dapper White Supremacist riding the Trump wave’ (Richard Spencer).
Dapper. White. Supremacist.
I wonder if ‘dapper’ was the word which sprung to the mind of African Americans as that individual discussed the merits of black genocide? When you treat fascism as simply another political view, you have conceded legitimacy to that point of view. It becomes acceptable to discuss in the mainstream. Black genocide is not an acceptable point of view. And believing that you can win the argument by giving these people at platform for debate misunderstands the problem.
Fascism is not rational. Fascists and others advancing dangerous, lethal agendas are not interested in winning the debate. They just want to win. And we cannot ever allow that to happen again.
Today we must remember the victims of humanity’s worst crime. And we must think seriously about how we turn our determination to never allow it to happen again into practical reality.